The Death of Adolf Hitler

This article is about the book. For the event, see Death of Adolf Hitler. For the television episode, see The Death of Adolf Hitler (ITV Sunday Night Theatre).

The Death of Adolf Hitler: Unknown Documents from Soviet Archives

Cover of the first edition
Author	Lev Bezymenski
Original title	Der Tod des Adolf Hitler: Unbekannte Dokumente aus Moskauer Archiven
Language	German
Publisher	Wegner
Publication date	1968
Publication place	Germany
Published in English	1968
Media type	Print (paperback)
Pages	c. 134

The Death of Adolf Hitler: Unknown Documents from Soviet Archives is a 1968 book by Soviet journalist Lev Bezymenski, who served as an interpreter in the Battle of Berlin. The book gives details of the purported Soviet autopsies of Adolf Hitler, Eva Braun, Joseph and Magda Goebbels, their children, and General Hans Krebs. Each of these individuals are recorded as having died by cyanide poisoning; contrary to the Western conclusion (and the accepted view of historians) that Hitler died by a suicide gunshot.

The book's release was preceded by many contrary reports about Hitler's death, including from commonly self-contradictory (and tortured) eyewitnesses. The Soviets implied that the body of an apparent double belonged to Hitler, that such a body was found with Hitler's dental remains (perhaps killed by cyanide), and that the dictator used these means to fake his death and escape Berlin. Some Western authors suggested that the lack of a body was due to its burning. Much of the information presented in the book about Hitler's cause of death (e.g. poisoning or a coup de grâce) has been discredited, even by the author, as propaganda. The only Soviet forensic description accepted by Western sources is that of Hitler's dental remains, photographs of which were novelly published via the book.

Background

See also: Alleged doubles of Adolf Hitler, Conspiracy theories about Adolf Hitler's death, and Death of Adolf Hitler

The key surviving witnesses to the immediate aftermath of Hitler's death: Heinz Linge, Otto Günsche, and Artur Axmann. The former two were interrogated by the Soviet Union and then the Western Allies; Axmann spoke only to U.S. officials (giving details of Hitler's death when photographed here).

On April 22 1945, as the Red Army was closing in on the Führerbunker during the Battle of Berlin, Hitler declared that he would stay in Berlin and shoot himself. That same day, he asked Schutzstaffel (SS) physician Werner Haase about the most reliable method of suicide; Haase suggested combining a dose of cyanide with a gunshot to the head. SS physician Ludwig Stumpfegger provided Hitler with some ampoules of prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide), which the dictator initially planned to use but later doubted their efficacy. On 29 April, Hitler ordered Haase to test one of the ampoules on his dog Blondi; the dog died instantly. On the afternoon of 30 April, Hitler committed suicide with Eva Braun in his bunker study.

The former Reich minister of propaganda and Hitler's successor as chancellor of Germany, Joseph Goebbels, informed the Reichssender Hamburg radio station of Hitler's death. The news was first broadcast on the night of 1 May, with Germany claiming that Hitler died that afternoon as a hero fighting against Bolshevism. Various other specious claims about Hitler's death presaged the 1968 book, especially regarding the Soviet investigation and a number of statements by German eyewitnesses.

Initial Soviet surveys

In 1947, the Soviets destroyed the emergency exit and guard towers of the Führerbunker.

On 2 May 1945, the official Soviet newspaper Pravda declared the report of Hitler's death to have been a Nazi trick. On 4 May, Soviet newspapers implied that his body was likely destroyed by fires in the Reich Chancellery bunker complex. A Soviet intelligence report of 8 May stated that Hitler's "bullet-riddled and battered" body had been found, with the identification supported by all but two questioned Nazi servants, one being a chauffeur who said the body was a cook killed because of his resemblance to the (allegedly escaped) dictator. On 10 May, Soviet dispatches to Moscow announced that they had found the bodies of Martin Bormann and Goebbels, as well as four bodies in the Führerbunker bearing "some resemblance to Hitler". By 11 May, two colleagues of Hitler's dentist, Hugo Blaschke, confirmed the dental remains of Hitler and Braun; both dental witnesses would remain in Soviet custody for about a decade. On 17 May, SS-Sturmbannführer Otto Günsche purportedly told the Soviets—contrary to his later testimony—that he only saw the couple's bodies after they had been wrapped in blankets. A Soviet report of 23 May cited chemical analysis and Nazi servants in determining that the body purportedly belonging to Hitler had died from poison injected by Stumpfegger on 1 May, with Günsche hiding the corpse in a secret chamber (not unlike one purportedly occupied by the body double until 1 May).

On 6 June 1945, Western correspondents cited the statements of Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov's staff that Hitler's body was most likely one of four charred corpses found in the Führerbunker on 3 May or 4 May, burned by the Red Army's flamethrowers before they stormed in. According to forensic tests, this individual had died by cyanide poisoning. At a press conference on 9 June, Zhukov revealed that Hitler had married Braun and presented the official Soviet disinformation narrative that the dictator had escaped. The next day, newspapers quoted Zhukov as saying, "We have found no corpse that could be Hitler's," and Soviet Colonel General Nikolai Berzarin as stating, "Perhaps he is in Spain with Franco." In early July, Time magazine reported that the Soviet investigation had produced no conclusive evidence of Hitler's death and asserted that he had ordered his men to spread false news of his demise.

In early July 1945, British newspapers quoted a Soviet major who reputedly led the Red Army into the Chancellery garden as saying that he saw a body near the bunker exit which he thought was "a very poor double". United States newspapers quoted the Russian garrison commandant of Berlin as claiming that Hitler had "gone into hiding somewhere in Europe", possibly aided by Francoist Spain. When asked at the Potsdam Conference in mid-July how Hitler had died, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin said he was living "in Spain or Argentina". In mid-1945, a Soviet major told American sources that Hitler escaped, claiming that the body found in the Chancellery garden "didn't look like Hitler at all" and that Braun's body had also not been found. One Soviet major thought Hitler might have faked his death to mimic the resurrection of Jesus.

According to SS valet Heinz Linge, who was captured by the Soviets in early May 1945, his interrogators repeatedly questioned him about whether Hitler was dead or if he could have escaped using a body double; the Soviets told him that they had found multiple corpses but were unsure about Hitler's remains. In 1955, Linge stated that his interrogation by the Soviets suggested they never found his body. In 1956, the German tabloid newspaper Das Bild quoted the captain of the Soviet People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) as claiming that both Hitler and Braun's bodies had been found and that "Hitler's skull was almost intact, as were the cranium and the upper and lower jaws," with the identification proven by the confirmation of the dental remains.

Eyewitness accounts

British MI6 intelligence officer Hugh Trevor-Roper argued that discrepancies amongst truthful eyewitnesses could be due to differences in "observation and recollection", but certain witnesses also contradict themselves. German historian Anton Joachimsthaler theorized that the turbulent event resulted in poor memory formation. Both the Soviets and Western Allies employed interrogational torture, in the 21st century considered to be ineffective and to result in false statements; Hitler's chauffeur, Erich Kempka, admitted in 1974 that "to save my own skin, I told [Western] interrogators just about anything ... I thought they wanted to hear."

The Soviets initially imprisoned Linge and Günsche separately so they could not conspire to make their statements match. Placed in a cell with an NKVD man disguised as a German soldier, Linge stated that he would not let his captors crack him. Also in custody, Hitler's pilot Hans Baur told Linge and Günsche to "Never say what really happened," remaining loyal to his Führer. Linge and Günsche shared a cell from mid-1948 to the end of 1949, when they shared details for a Soviet book about Hitler's last days. Both were reputedly uncooperative, especially Günsche; Linge's apparent forthcomingness reportedly triggering Günsche to make threats against him. In 2002, German historian Joachim Fest argued that increased discrepancies between eyewitness reports about late April 1945 had rendered Hitler's death "impossible to reconstruct". Some Western sources have pondered whether key witnesses could have lied about certain details. English historian Mark Felton suggested that this may have been done to conceal Nazi forensic fraud, specifically putting Hitler and Braun's dental remains into the mouths of decoy bodies.

Immediate aftermath

Three main eyewitnesses to the state of Hitler and Braun's bodies in the immediate aftermath of their deaths survived and provided their accounts: Linge, Günsche, and Hitler Youth leader Artur Axmann. Linge and Günsche were quickly captured by the Soviets and spent a decade in captivity, undergoing extensive questioning under torturous conditions; Axmann was arrested by the U.S. Army in December 1945. In a purported Soviet transcript of a statement made on 17 May 1945, Günsche said he only saw the bodies after they had been wrapped in blankets. In 1946, Linge told the Soviets that he saw a wound the size of a small coin on Hitler's right temple; he also stated that he saw traces of blood running down Hitler's cheek in two streams and (to the undercover NKVD man) that the wound seemed like it could have been painted on. Meanwhile, Günsche repeatedly told the Soviets that he only learned from Linge that Hitler died by gunshot. All three key eyewitnesses told Western authorities that they saw the bodies of Hitler (seated upright) and Braun (next to him with no visible wounds) before they were moved.

In 1956, West Germany created reconstructions of contrary eyewitness reports of how Hitler's body was found: either on a couch with Eva Braun (Linge/Axmann) or in an armchair (Günsche).

In June 1945, U.S. authorities captured Erich Kempka. He initially claimed that just after Hitler's death, Günsche provided no details about Hitler's death, but later said Günsche told him that Hitler shot himself through the mouth (claiming Günsche made a hand gesture to indicate this, which Günsche later denied). Trevor-Roper cited this method of death in his November 1945 report. After his capture in December 1945, Axmann told U.S. officials that he saw thin ribbons of blood coming from both of Hitler's temples, but that a slightly askew lower jaw made him think Hitler had shot himself through the mouth, with the temple blood being a result of internal trauma. Axmann did not check the back of the head for an exit wound. He claimed that the shot in the mouth destroyed Hitler's dental work, and both that he saw no blood coming from Hitler's mouth and that the mouth "was bloody and smeared". Additionally, Axmann said Günsche told him that Hitler had taken poison then shot himself, with Axmann saying Günsche could have been told by Hitler or his doctor; Günsche later denied telling Axmann that Hitler took poison. Trevor-Roper repeated the story of a shot through the mouth in his 1947 book, additionally citing statements by Bormann's secretary Else Krüger and Hitler's secretaries Traudl Junge (who was reputedly told by Günsche) and Gerda Christian (allegedly told by Linge). Junge wrote in 1947 (published in her 2002 memoir) that Günsche told her:

The Führer had shot himself in the mouth and bitten on a poison capsule too. His skull was shattered and looked dreadful. ... We wrapped the Führer's head in a blanket, and Goebbels, Axmann and Kempka carried the corpse ...

In 1948, the Berlin Records Office cited Axmann's testimony from the Einsatzgruppen trial at Nuremberg that he had seen Hitler's body being carried in a blanket as insufficient evidence of the dictator's death; this led to an extensive investigation and new testimony. In 1956, Linge, Günsche, and Baur were released by the Soviets and brought to Berlin. They were again torturously interrogated, with the goal of proving the Soviet narrative that Hitler killed himself with poison. Linge—and now also Günsche—said they saw a wound the size of a small coin on Hitler's right temple and a puddle of blood on the floor. Linge and Axmann stated, in accord with forensic evidence, that Hitler's body was sitting at one end of the sofa; Günsche said it was in an adjacent armchair. The discrepancies between eyewitnesses spurred a criminological report for West Germany officials, employing ballistics tests. Hitler's death certificate was registered in 1956 as an assumption of death on the incorrect basis that no eyewitnesses saw his body.

In 1956, SS-Standartenführer Wilhelm Mohnke stated that soon after Hitler's death, Günsche said Hitler had ordered Linge to deliver a coup de grâce-style gunshot to ensure his death after he took poison; Mohnke was unsure whether Günsche said Hitler had also given him this command or if it had actually been carried out. Decades later, Günsche denied making such statements. Both SS-Rottenführer Harry Mengershausen and Reichssicherheitsdienst (RSD) guard Hermann Karnau initially asserted that Stumpfegger killed Hitler via a poison injection, but Mengershausen later claimed to have seen the entry wound to the right temple and Karnau said that before the cremation began the skull was "partially caved in and the face encrusted with blood". Günsche said that by this time "the bloodstains from the temple had spread further over the face". Linge stated in 1965 that the entry wound was to the left temple, but recanted this.

SS-Oberscharführer Rochus Misch told U.S. interviewers over 50 years after the fact that he quickly looked in the study and saw Hitler's head facedown on the table, contradicting himself about whether he saw blood; he uniquely claimed that Braun's head was leaning against Hitler's leg.

Corpse disposal

Kempka contradicted himself about whether he saw blood on the rug. He stated about the cremations, "I doubt if anything remained of the bodies. The fire was terrifically intense. Maybe some evidence like bits of bone and teeth could be found but [the artillery shelling] scattered things all over." According to Kempka and other eyewitnesses, there was enough petrol (perhaps over 150 liters or 40 U.S. gallons) to achieve extensive burning of the couple's bodies; by comparison, the bodies presumed to be those of Joseph and Magda Goebbels were reputedly burnt with less than 80 L (21 U.S. gal), causing heavy charring. Mengershausen reported seeing under 40 L used to burn Hitler and Braun.

Karnau made numerous contradictory statements about the burnings, including that they occurred on 1 May, that the lower portions burned away first and that eventually (but at an earlier stated time) they were reduced to skeletons, or rather ashes. RSD guard Erich Mansfeld testified in 1954 that around 18:00 he and Karnau saw Hitler and Braun's still-burning "charred and shrunken corpses". In 1945, Kempka claimed he had no knowledge of the burnt remains being moved, but in 1953 said he and SS-General Johann Rattenhuber visited the site around 19:30 and saw ashes, with Rattenhuber telling him these would be buried; in 1955 Rattenhuber denied this. Mengershausen claimed in 1945 that he saw two of Hitler's personal guards move the burnt corpses into a bomb crater and level it with soil. In 1956, Mengershausen stated that it was he and SS-Unterscharführer Glanzer who moved the remains (Hitler's corpse largely intact except for the feet), putting them on boards and burying them in a 2-meter (6+1⁄2-foot)-deep crater under 1 m of soil, over about 90 minutes. Hitler dental technician Fritz Echtmann asserted that Mengershausen acted on Rattenhuber's orders, despite the latter's denial. Linge, who in 1955 implied that the corpse burned only briefly, stated that Günsche reputedly "ordered an SS officer called Hans Reisser to take some men of the Leibstandarte and bury the remains". Günsche implied that Reisser and SS-Hauptsturmführer Ewald Lindloff completed the task.

Further findings

In 1945, separate investigations by the Western allies documented a bloodstain on Hitler's bed frame suggesting that blood had trickled there from the mattress, by then removed; a British officer suggested that Hitler could have been shot there, with a less bloody death occurring on the fairly clean sofa. A May 1945 picture of Hitler's study by Life photojournalist William Vandivert shows some blood on the sofa's right side. In July 1945, Vandivert photographed American correspondent Percy Knauth troweling dirt in the crater Hitler and Braun were presumedly buried in (in agreement with Mengershausen and Mansfeld). In early 1946, a British journalist independently investigated the bunker grounds. He reported no evidence of burnings in the spot alleged by Kempka, including on tree limbs overhead; he further cited cremation experts as saying bones remain intact and alleged that "[a] thorough sifting of the soil" produced no bone or metal clothing parts such as shoe eyelets.

Largely owing to Western interviews with eyewitnesses establishing that Hitler had died by gunshot, the NKVD and its successor, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, conducted a second investigation (known as "Operation Myth") from 1945 to 1946. The Soviets concluded that the poison capsules found in the mouths of the corpses wrongly identified as Hitler and Braun had been placed posthumously as part of a deliberate deception, evidently conducted by the Germans. Blood from Hitler's sofa and wall was reportedly matched to his blood type and a partially burnt skull fragment was found with gun damage near the bottom of the right parietal bone. Citing these two lines of evidence, the Soviets newly concluded that Hitler died by gunshot. Additionally, the Soviets found blood spurts on the walls of the stairwell leading to the emergency exit. Throughout the investigations, in various efforts to please Stalin, different Soviet departments withheld information from each other, the western Allies, and—at least temporarily—Stalin himself.

In the introduction to the 1947 American book Who Killed Hitler?, U.S. intelligence officer William F. Heimlich says the crater Hitler and Braun were reputedly buried in had not been excavated prior to his team's one-day investigation in December 1945, and that both Karnau and Mansfeld were unreliable, lacking knowledge of the bunker layout. The 1947 book suggests that Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler arranged for Hitler's murder by poison (injected by Stumpfegger), with Günsche delivering a coup de grâce-style gunshot to the corpse hours later, at the recorded time of the suicides (Günsche also shooting the hesitant Braun). The 1947 book asserts that Stalin "[kept] the ghost of Hitler alive" to galvanize his "totalitarian" communist forces. In the early 1950s, Heimlich told the National Police Gazette (an American tabloid-style magazine) that during their day of access to the bunker grounds, the Americans sifted the garden dirt and found no trace of burnt bodies. British writers Trevor-Roper and Alan Bullock argued that Hitler's body would not have completely burned to ashes in the open air, while Trevor-Roper considered that somebody could have boxed up and taken the ashen remains, as Günsche supposedly suggested.

An alleged Hitler body double with gunshot damage to the forehead filmed by the Soviets in 1945

In 1963, author Cornelius Ryan interviewed General B. S. Telpuchovski, a Soviet historian who was purportedly present during the aftermath of the Battle of Berlin. Telpuchovski claimed that on 2 May 1945 (the day Goebbels was reputedly discovered), a burnt body he thought belonged to Hitler was found wrapped in a blanket. By 1964, Marshal Vasily Chuikov similarly asserted that on 2 May, the Soviets found "a still-smoking rug" containing the "scorched body of Hitler"; Chuikov nonsensically theorized that the Germans announced Hitler's death two days before it occurred. According to Telpuchovski, the individual had been killed by a (seemingly self-inflicted) gunshot through the mouth, with an exit wound through the back of the head, and several dental bridges were found "lying alongside the head" because "the force of the bullet had dislodged them from the mouth". In his 1966 book, The Last Battle, Ryan describes this body as being Hitler's, saying it had been buried "under a thin layer of earth". Two other badly burnt Hitler candidates were allegedly produced, including an apparent body double with the remains of mended socks; Telpuchovski also cited an unburnt body. Ryan was also told that Braun's body was never found and "that it must have been consumed completely by fire, and that any normally identifiable portions must have been destroyed or scattered in the furious bombardment".

Prior to Bezymenski's book, Western historians referred to Hitler's remains as including a full mandible, as opposed to a fragment with teeth.

Author

Soviet journalist Lev Bezymenski (1920–2007), the son of poet Aleksandr Bezymensky, served as an interpreter in the Battle of Berlin under Marshal Zhukov. Early on 1 May 1945, he translated a letter from Goebbels and Bormann announcing Hitler's death. Bezymenski authored several works about the Nazi era.

Content

English hardcover edition (1968)

The book begins with an overview of the Battle of Berlin and its aftermath, including a reproduction of the purported Soviet autopsy report of Hitler's body. Bezymenski states that the bodies of Hitler and Braun were "the most seriously disfigured of all thirteen corpses" examined. The appendix summarizes the discovery of the Goebbels family's corpses and includes further forensic reports. On why the autopsy reports were not released earlier, Bezymenski says:

Not because of doubts as to the credibility of the experts. ... Those who were involved in the investigation remember that other considerations played a far larger role. First, it was resolved not to publish the results of the forensic-medical report but to "hold it in reserve" in case someone might try to slip into the role of "the Führer saved by a miracle." Secondly, it was resolved to continue the investigations in order to exclude any possibility of error or deliberate deception.

The Death of Adolf Hitler

See also: Death of Adolf Hitler

Early in the book, Bezymenski contends that accounts written by those who lacked access to the autopsy reports "have confused the issue rather than clarifying it". He cites The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1960), in which American journalist William L. Shirer states:

The bones were never found, and this gave rise to rumors after the war that Hitler had survived. But the separate interrogation of several eyewitnesses by British and American intelligence officers leaves no doubt about the matter. Kempka has given a plausible explanation as to why the charred remains were never found. "The traces were wiped out," he told his interrogators, "by the uninterrupted Russian artillery fire."

Bezymenski goes on to cite Hitler: A Study in Tyranny (1962 edition), in which Alan Bullock says:

What happened to the ashes of the two burned bodies left in the Chancellery Garden has never been discovered. ... Trevor-Roper, who carried out a thorough investigation in 1945 of the circumstances surrounding Hitler's death, inclines to the view that the ashes were collected into a box and handed to Artur Axmann. ... It is, of course, true that no final incontrovertible evidence in the form of Hitler's dead body has been produced.

Box purportedly containing Hitler's burnt body

Bezymenski then gives an account of the battle of Berlin, the subsequent investigation by SMERSH, supplemented by later statements of Nazi officers. Bezymenski quotes SMERSH commander Ivan Klimenko's account, which states that on the night of 3 May 1945, he witnessed Vizeadmiral Hans-Erich Voss seem to recognize a body as Hitler's in a dry water tank filled with other corpses outside the Führerbunker, before recanting this identification. Klimenko noted that the corpse had mended socks, initially giving him doubt, as well. Klimenko then relates that on 4 May, Soviet Private Ivan Churakov found legs sticking out of the ground in a crater outside the Reich Chancellery. Two corpses were exhumed, but Klimenko had these reburied, thinking that the doppelgänger would be identified as Hitler. Only that day did several witnesses say it was definitely not Hitler's body, and a diplomat released it for burial. On the morning of 5 May, Klimenko had the other two bodies reexhumed. By 11 May, two colleagues of Hitler's dentist both confirmed the dental remains found to be from Hitler and Eva Braun.

As shown in the book, Hitler's dental remains consist of (left images) a metallic maxillar bridge and (right) a mandibular fragment sundered near the alveolar ridge.

Hitler's dental remains are all that were confirmed to belong to his body.

On 8 May, the Soviet forensicists reportedly received a wooden box containing the "remains of a male corpse disfigured by fire", ostensibly presumed to be Hitler's. Bezymenski explains that the initial report was handwritten, and because it was typewritten at a later date, it mentions the 11 May identification of the dental remains by Blaschke's assistant Käthe Heusermann. The upper dental remains consisted of a bridge of nine primarily gold teeth. The lower jawbone fragment had 15 teeth, 10 of them largely or entirely artificial; it was found loose in the oral cavity, and was broken and burnt around the alveolar process, the bulge that encases the tooth sockets. Splinters of glass and a "thin-walled ampule" were alleged to have been found in the mouth, apparently from a cyanide capsule, which was ruled to be the cause of death, although no dissection of internal organs was recorded, making this unverifiable. Ranking Soviet forensicist Faust Shkaravsky declared that "No matter what is asserted ... our Commission could not detect any traces of a gun shot ... Hitler poisoned himself."

The alleged body was estimated to be about 1.65 m (5 ft 5 in) tall (about the length of the box it was delivered in). (Hitler stood 1.76 m or 5 ft 9 in tall.) The report states that "the skin is completely missing" but some traces of muscles remained. Reportedly, "On the body was found a piece of yellow jersey ... charred around the edges, resembling a knitted undervest." The left foot and the left testicle were reportedly missing. Part of the skull was absent, and the fire-damaged brain could be seen in part, with an intact dura mater.

A report by Klimenko records that on 13 May, Mengershausen stated that he watched Hitler and Braun's bodies burn for half an hour as well as their burial in the crater Hitler's dog Blondi was buried in, reportedly from a distance of 600 m (2,000 ft), ten times the actual distance (and contrary to his later account of helping bury the remains). Mengershausen specified the crater, which Klimenko says was where Churakov found the remains of the couple and two dogs on an unspecified date in May.

Bezymenski criticizes Nazi Germany's initial announcement of Hitler's death as an example of the dictator's 'big lie' propaganda technique as it implied him to have died as a soldier fighting "to the last breath". Bezymenski also questions the discrepancies of prior reports. Günsche allegedly told the Soviets in 1950 that both Hitler and Braun were seated on the sofa, but in 1960, said both were on chairs. Bezymenski notes Kempka's contrary account of a gunshot through the mouth and points out that Linge's 1965 claim of Hitler's entry wound being to the left temple is unlikely as Hitler was right-handed and his left hand trembled significantly.

Bezymenski argues that a self-inflicted shot through the mouth would have been prevented by a crushed cyanide ampoule, claiming that the poison "acts instantly" and that Hitler's declining health (particularly his hand tremors) would have prevented him from firing the suicide shot. Additionally, he cites the dictator's reluctance to fall into enemy hands as supporting a coup de grâce. Bezymenski quotes SS-General Rattenhuber as telling the Soviets that before killing himself with cyanide, Hitler ordered Linge to return in ten minutes to deliver a coup de grâce-style gunshot to ensure his death. Rattenhuber reputedly thought that Linge completed this task while the Soviets believed it was done by Günsche. Bezymenski avers that if anyone shot Hitler, it was not himself; he cites the little black dog found nearby, which was given poison then shot. The author also refers to an occipital skull fragment recovered in 1946 with an exit wound, saying it most likely belonged to Hitler.

Bezymenski asserts that sometime after the forensic examinations, the corpses of Hitler and the others were completely burned and the ashes scattered.

Appendix

The appendix includes the purported Soviet forensic reports on the bodies of Braun, the Goebbels family, General Krebs, and two dogs.

Eva Braun

Box purportedly containing Braun's remains

The purported autopsy of the body presumed to be Braun's was conducted on 8 May 1945. The corpse is noted as being "impossible to describe the features of" due to its extensive charring. Almost the entire upper skull was missing. The occipital and temporal bones were fragmentary, as was the lower left of the face. The upper jaw contained four teeth (three molars, a loose canine, and a detached root), while the lower jaw had six teeth on the left; the others were missing—according to the report "probably because of burning". Some teeth were affected by caries. The alveolar process of the maxilla was also absent. A piece of gold (likely a filling) was found in the mouth cavity, and a gold bridge with two false molars was under the tongue. The woman was judged to be no more than middle-aged due to her teeth being only slightly worn; her height was approximately 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in). There was a splinter injury to the chest resulting in hemorrhage and hemothorax, injuries to one lung and the pericardium—accompanied by six small metal fragments. Pieces of a glass ampule were found in the mouth, and the smell of bitter almonds which accompanies death from cyanide poisoning was present; this was ruled to be the cause of death.

Goebbels family

Magda and Joseph Goebbels surrounded by their children, who (except for Magda's earlier son Harald Quandt at top center) all died by cyanide poisoning in the bunker—the six children killed by their parents with the help of Dr. Stumpfegger

The partly burnt body of Joseph Goebbels and the remains presumed to be Magda Goebbels were discovered near the bunker emergency exit by Ivan Klimenko on 2 May 1945, reportedly after a German notified him of their presence. The next day, Senior Lieutenant Ilyin found the bodies of the Goebbels children in one of the rooms of the Chancellery bunker. The bodies were identified by Vizeadmiral Voss, Chancellery cook Wilhelm Lange, and Karl Schneider (referred to as the head garage mechanic), "all of whom knew [the Goebbels family] well". The autopsies of two of the children are listed as taking place on 7 and 8 May; all six children were determined to have died from cyanide poisoning. Autopsies for Joseph and Magda were conducted on 9 May.

Joseph Goebbels's body was "heavily scorched", but was identified by his size, estimated age, shortened right leg and related orthopedic appliance, as well as his head characteristics and dental remains, which included many fillings. His genitals were "greatly reduced in size, shrunken, dry". Chemical testing revealed cyanide compounds in the internal organs and blood; cyanide poisoning was judged to be the cause of death.

The body presumed to be Magda's was scorched beyond recognition. Voss identified two items found on the corpse as having been in her possession: a cigarette case inscribed "Adolf Hitler—29.X.34", which she had used for the last three weeks of her life, and Hitler's Golden Party Badge, which the dictator had given her three days before his suicide. Additionally, a reddish-blond hairpiece was identified as matching the color of one Magda wore. Her dental remains, including both a maxilla and mandible with dental work, were found loose on the corpse along with splinters from a thin-walled ampule; the cause of death was ruled to be cyanide poisoning.

General Krebs

General Krebs is erroneously listed in the autopsy report as "Major General Krips" (as Bezymenski notes). His autopsy was conducted on 9 May. Cyanide compounds were detected in the internal organs and the smell of bitter almonds was recorded, leading the commission to conclude that Krebs' death was "obviously caused by poisoning with cyanide compounds". Three light head wounds were presumed to have been obtained from his death fall onto a protruding object.

Dogs

A German Shepherd matching Hitler's dog Blondi's description appears to have died from cyanide poisoning. A small black bitch, about 60 centimeters (2 ft) long and 28 cm (1 ft) tall, was poisoned by cyanide before being shot in the head. Both dogs were unburnt.

Photographs

Sixteen pages of previously unreleased photographs include those of Ivan Klimenko, head of autopsy commission Faust Shkaravsky, the locations of Hitler's burning and burying site outside the Führerbunker's emergency exit, SMERSH agents exhuming Hitler and Braun's remains, a diagram of where the corpses of Hitler, Braun, Joseph and Magda Goebbels were burned, Hitler and Braun's alleged corpses in boxes (angled so that unidentifiable mounds of flesh can be seen), front and back views of Hitler's golden upper dental bridge and a lower jawbone fragment connecting his lower teeth and bridges, a sketch drawn Käthe Heusermann on 11 May 1945 to identify Hitler's dental remains, Braun's dental bridge, the first and last page of Hitler's autopsy report, the Soviet autopsy commission with both Krebs' and Joseph Goebbels' corpses, the bodies of the Goebbels family, the bodies of Krebs and the Goebbels children at Plötzensee Prison, and Blondi's corpse.

Criticism and legacy

A 1940s U.S.-forged stamp depicting Hitler, as it appears on the 1978 Jove Books mass-market paperback edition's cover

Upon the book's publication, Hugh Trevor-Roper wrote that it was "remarkable that [Bezymenski's] book is apparently for Western consumption only", with no Russian release and the book's original language apparently being German. Trevor-Roper says, "No explanation is offered of these interesting facts, which suggest a propagandist rather than an historical purpose." In 1969, Reuben Ainsztein compared Bezymenski's account to that of Soviet war interpreter Elena Rzhevskaya, whom he says implied that "the investigating team completed its investigations against [Stalin's] wishes". Ainsztein criticizes Bezymenski for failing to explain why he ostensibly blames Shirer and Bullock for helping "foster the legend that [Hitler] shot himself like a man". In his 1971 book about Hitler, German historian Werner Maser expresses doubt about Bezymenski's book, including the autopsy's insinuation that Hitler had only one testicle.

In 1972, forensic odontologists Reidar F. Sognnaes and Ferdinand Strøm reconfirmed Hitler's dental remains based on X-rays of Hitler taken in 1944, the 1945 testimony of Käthe Heusermann and Fritz Echtmann, as well as the purported Soviet forensic examination of the dental remains. After initially believing that the Soviets had examined Braun's corpse, by 1981 Sognnaes was convinced that this was false after Heusermann reputedly told him that Braun had never actually been fitted for a dental bridge although one had been made for her. In 2023, Mark Felton noted that the alleged autopsy report reported natural teeth where Braun had artificial molars, as well as caries, but Braun maintained good dental hygiene even through her last couple of months.

Elena Rzhevskaya claimed to have seen Hitler's charred corpse in the Chancellery garden. According to her, the dental remains were removed during the alleged autopsy (at which Bezymenski asserts she was not present), and the pages of the report about them were recorded on "two large non-standard sheets of paper". Rzhevskaya safeguarded the dental remains until they could be identified by Hitler's dental staff. Shkaravsky (d. 1975) wrote to her that the commission had been forbidden to photograph Hitler's body for unknown reasons and suggested that the damage to Braun's chest could have been from shrapnel. According to Lindloff, who cremated Hitler and Braun's bodies, after only 30 minutes the bodies were "already charred and torn open", in part caused by shrapnel.

In his 1975 book The Bunker, journalist James P. O'Donnell dismisses the book's implication that a poisoned Hitler could not have shot himself, pointing out that "few if any poisons act instantly, [and] certainly not cyanide". O'Donnell dismisses the supporting claim that Hitler would not have been able to pull the trigger due to hand tremors, as only his left hand shook badly. O'Donnell further exhorts: "Hitler lacked many human qualities; but, really, did he lack a strong will?"

Revised edition

In 1982, a revised edition of the book was released in German. Bezymenski cites Sognnaes and Strøm (whose 1972 report is included in English) as supporting his view that Hitler's confirmed dental remains prove that the Soviets found his body. (However, Sognnaes concluded in 1981 that Braun's alleged remains may have been a forensic fraud.) Another scientist sympathetic to Bezymenski's view found the exit wound on the parietal skull fragment to be larger on top and thus likely to have been fired through the mouth. Bezymenski states that no bullet was found, not even lodged in the skull (as he acknowledges is possible at certain trajectories). In addition to Hitler's hand tremors, Bezymenski cites a psychiatrist who asserted in Who Killed Hitler? (1947) that the dictator's psychology would have prevented him from firing the suicide shot. Bezymenski claims to have only recently learned of the 1947 book, despite writing in 1968 that the Soviets thought Günsche delivered a coup de grâce-style shot. Bezymenski claims that the 1947 book argues for the necessary time window for a coup de grâce-style shot on the basis of eyewitnesses being inconsistent about the timing and severity of the burnings.

Later discourse

In 1992, Bezymenski wrote that Hitler's corpse was cremated in April 1978, despite asserting in 1968 that it had already been done. A 1992 Der Spiegel article claims that Bezymenski had now learned that the cremation took place in 1970. The article further asserts that the blood type was not determined in 1946 as claimed by the Soviets (as well as self-contradictorily by Heimlich) and that during the 1946 investigation, the Soviets found trickle-like bloodstains on Hitler's sofa, interpreted by Der Spiegel as implying Hitler died slowly. Bezymenski, who described himself as having been "a product of the era and a typical party propagandist", stated that "It is not difficult to guess why the KGB [did not give me findings suggesting Hitler's slow death, as I] was supposed to lead the reader to the conclusion that all talk of a gunshot was a pipe dream or half an invention and that Hitler actually poisoned himself." In a 2003 episode of National Geographic's Riddles of the Dead, Bezymenski elaborates that the KGB only granted him access to the documents in the Soviet archive on the basis that he would maintain the narrative that Hitler died by cyanide and say his remains had been cremated by June 1945.

In 1995, journalist Ada Petrova and historian Peter Watson wrote that they considered Bezymenski's account at odds with Trevor-Roper's report, published as The Last Days of Hitler (1947). Though Petrova and Watson used Bezymenski's book as a source for theirs, they note issues with the SMERSH investigation. A main issue they cite is that the autopsies on the alleged remains of Hitler and Braun did not include a record of dissection of their internal organs, which would have shown with certainty whether poison was a factor in their deaths. (Extensive internal organ examinations were recorded in some of the commission's other autopsies.) Petrova and Watson opine that it was dissatisfaction of this first investigation, along with concerns of the findings of Trevor-Roper, that led to Stalin ordering a second commission in 1946. Petrova and Watson cite Hitler's alleged autopsy report to refute Hugh Thomas's theory that only Hitler's dental remains belonged to him, saying that the entire jawbone structure would have had to have been found loose on the alleged body while clamping down on the tongue, which "would presumably be a very difficult arrangement to fake". According to Petrova and Watson, the boxes containing the purported remains of Hitler and Braun were ammunition crates.

Petrova and Watson had the skull fragment examined by a forensic expert, who agreed with the view advanced by Bezymenski in 1982 that the exit wound was larger on top, purportedly implying that the shot was fired from below. Contrarily, Hugh Thomas thought such a shot would have been complicated by the sphenoid bone. He thought a sagittal shot through the forehead was more likely, rare for handgun suicides. Also noting that the fragment was scarcely burnt, Thomas suggested that the evidence of a suicide gunshot was faked (e.g. by the Soviets to please Stalin, as they did in some other cases involving Hitler's death). In his 1983 book, American historian Donald McKale argues that Western authors were wrong to dismiss the alleged autopsy report and that the narrative of Hitler's death by gunshot styled him into a symbol of anti-communism. Simultaneously, McKale states that Stalin stoked the spread of survival stories.

In 1995, Joachimsthaler criticized Bezymenski's account in his book on Hitler's death, reaching the same conclusion put forward 45 years earlier by U.S. jurist Michael Musmanno (presiding judge at the Einsatzgruppen trial) that the dictator's corpse was almost completely burned to ashes—meaning that no body would have remained to perform an autopsy on. Joachimsthaler implies that another body must have been examined instead, while also pointing out that hydrogen cyanide would have been evaporated by the fire and thus not left an odor. He quotes German pathologist Otto Prokop as saying about the alleged autopsy: "Bezemensky's report is ridiculous. ... Any one of my assistants would have done better ... the whole thing is a farce ... it is intolerably bad work ... the transcript of the post-mortem section of 8 [May] 1945 describes anything but Hitler." Similarly, in 2019 historian Luke Daly-Groves denounced "the dubious autopsy report riddled with scientific inconsistencies and tainted by ideological motivations" and stated that "the Soviet soldiers picked up whatever mush they could find in front of Hitler's bunker exit, put it in a box and claimed it was the corpses of Adolf and Eva Hitler". Only the report's coverage of the dental remains has been substantially verified, with 2017–2018 analysis led by French forensic pathologist Philippe Charlier concluding that the extant evidence "[fits] perfectly" with the Soviet description.

On the lack of discovery of a bullet in Hitler's study, Joachimsthaler theorizes that after Hitler fired his Walther PP or PPK at contact range, the bullet passed through one temple and became lodged inside the other, rupturing in a hematoma that looked like an exit wound. Joachimsthaler cites a 1925 study in which seven out of eighteen 7.65-mm bullets fired from pistols at living persons entered but did not exit the head. Only one shot of four fired through the temples did not exit, being fired from a distance and the bullet shattering in the brain. Other exit failures were associated with sagittal or oblique angles.

In their addendum to The Hitler Book (2005), Henrik Eberle and Matthias Uhl quote Bezymenski as admitting in 1995 that his work included "deliberate lies" and criticize his book for advocating the theories that Hitler died by poisoning or a coup de grâce. In 2018, investigative journalists Jean-Christophe Brisard and Lana Parshina allowed that Hitler could have commissioned Linge to shoot him through the temples due to his poor health (e.g. hand tremors), but largely dismiss Bezymenski's book as propagandistic.

In his 2019 book, Daly-Groves notes that Stalin's motivations in claiming Hitler's survival remain unclear, with most scholars concluding that he intended to secure disputed areas of West Germany on the basis that they would be safer under Soviet control if Hitler returned. Alternatively, Stalin may have intended to undermine perceived political opponents such as Zhukov (who had said Hitler was dead), attack rival nations ostensibly harboring Hitler, or motivate his totalitarian forces (as claimed 72 years earlier in the U.S. book Who Killed Hitler?). Daly-Groves argues that potential unexplored documents in the Russian archives could end decades of speculation; his own book includes clearer scans of the Soviet photographs of Hitler and Braun's alleged burnt corpses.

In his 2023 analysis, Mark Felton suggests that the Soviet forensicists likely assumed the bodies they inspected belonged to Hitler and Braun, as SMERSH was still in the process of collecting evidence upon the recorded date of the alleged autopsy; evidence of Hitler's death by gunshot was lacking as was the body's left foot, strangely implying amputation, while Braun's dental record proves the body was not hers. In Felton's view, Stalin initially seemed to believe that the couple escaped, but subsequent reports obscured the identification of the two bodies for political purposes. Felton suggests that deception by eyewitnesses would help explain how the Soviets inaccurately identified a body as Braun's, despite it apparently exhibiting a pre-mortem abdomen wound; Kempka claimed that Braun's body was wet around the heart when he helped move it from the bunker. Felton surmises that far more likely than Hitler's purported escape is the possibility—perhaps the only one remaining—that after the real bodies failed to burn completely, certain Nazis (in 31 hours, clandestinely and despite the Soviet bombardment) procured similar bodies (possibly at the nearby hospital), secured and planted the dental remains on them, interred them outside the bunker exit, and hid the actual bodies some other place (but still outside the Chancellery as alleged by Linge) where they evaded discovery.

References

Sources

• Bezymenski, Lev (1968). The Death of Adolf Hitler (1st ed.). New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.
  • —— (1982) [1968]. The Death of Adolf Hitler (in German) (rev. ed.). Munich: F. A. Herbig.
• Brisard, Jean-Christophe and Parshina, Lana (2018). The Death of Hitler. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0306922589.
• Charlier, Philippe; Weil, Raphael; Rainsard, P.; Poupon, Joël; Brisard, J.C. (1 May 2018). "The remains of Adolf Hitler: A biomedical analysis and definitive identification". European Journal of Internal Medicine. 54: e10 – e12. doi:10.1016/j.ejim.2018.05.014. PMID 29779904. S2CID 29159362.
• Daly-Groves, Luke (2019). Hitler's Death: The Case Against Conspiracy. Oxford, UK: Osprey. ISBN 978-1-4728-3454-6.
• de Boer, Sjoerd (2022). The Hitler Myths: Exposing the Truth Behind the Stories about the Führer. Frontline Books. ISBN 978-1-39901-905-7.
• Eberle, Henrik; Uhl, Matthias, eds. (2005). The Hitler Book: The Secret Dossier Prepared for Stalin from the Interrogations of Hitler's Personal Aides. Translated by Giles MacDonogh. New York: Public Affairs. ISBN 978-1-58648-366-1.
• Joachimsthaler, Anton (2000) [1995]. The Last Days of Hitler: The Legends, The Evidence, The Truth. Translated by Helmut Bölger. London: Cassell. ISBN 978-1-85409-465-0.
• Kershaw, Ian (2008). Hitler: A Biography. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-06757-6.
• Linge, Heinz (2009) [1980]. With Hitler to the End. Translated by Brooks, Geoffrey (1st English ed.). Skyhorse Publishing. ISBN 978-1-60239-804-7.
• Moore, Herbert; Barrett, James W., eds. (1947). Who Killed Hitler?. W. F. Heimlich (foreword). New York: The Booktab Press.
• Musmanno, Michael A. (1950). Ten Days to Die. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
• O'Donnell, James P. (2001) [1978]. The Bunker. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-80958-3.
• Petrova, Ada; Watson, Peter (1995). The Death of Hitler: The Full Story with New Evidence from Secret Russian Archives. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-03914-6.
• Ryan, Cornelius (1995) [1966]. The Last Battle. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-684-80329-6.
• Trevor-Roper, Hugh (2002) [1947]. The Last Days of Hitler (7th ed.). London: Pan Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-330-49060-3.
• Vinogradov, V. K.; Pogonyi, J. F.; Teptzov, N. V. (2005). Hitler's Death: Russia's Last Great Secret from the Files of the KGB. Chaucer Press. ISBN 978-1-904449-13-3.

Further reading

• Sognnaes, Reidar F.; Ström, Ferdinand (1973). "The odontological identification of Adolf Hitler". Acta Odontologica Scandinavica. 31 (1): 43–69. doi:10.3109/00016357309004612. PMID 4575430.